PureMobile - Ultimate Cellphone Accessory Supplier- USA

Coming this spring Verizon Wireless consumers will have the chance to bill online content directly to their cell phone bills. Verizon is set to utilize Danal’s BilltoMobile service that will allow mobile device users to charge any online content they download right to their Verizon bills. A secure connection and integration between Verizon Wireless and Danal will provide features important to online consumers and merchants, including robust subscriber authentication and fraud protection, among others.

The mobile payment service will feature a $25-per-month spending limit for these purchases, along with content and parental controls for individual accounts, giving account owners the ability to manage their BilltoMobile usage. When available, customers with text messaging-enabled phones will be able to shop quickly, securely and conveniently for Verizon Wireless-approved content at online stores, including game sites, social networks and virtual worlds. Users will also be able to purchase subscriptions to popular online games.

The BilltoMobile payment service is simple for consumers. To conduct a transaction, consumers click on the BilltoMobile button during checkout at a participating online Web site and then input their mobile numbers and mobile billing zip codes for subscriber authentication. A text message is then sent to consumers’ unlocked mobile phones with a one-time passcode. Once consumers input this passcode into the online checkout window, the transaction is completed. The entire process takes about 15 seconds, and there is no pre-registration or links to credit cards or bank accounts required.

This sounds like a great addition to power unlocked cell phone users on the Verizon network. The BilltoMobile program will offer consumers a safe and quick way to purchase products or online content directly from their mobile devices. This is just another step in the direction of being able to use your mobile devices for much more things than just making phone calls and sending text messages.

In an announcement to their premier customers Sprint released an account alert asking their customers to “visit us tomorrow for an exciting announcement about a groundbreaking new device.” No other details were provided but it is rumored that that this “groundbreaking new device” is the long rumored WiMAX smarphone. This new WiMAX smartphone known as the HTC Supersonic comes equipped with a 4.3 inch screen and Android 2.1 with Sense UI.

Releasing a 4G device would certainly fit the “groundbreaking” category and there have already been plans to unveil the phone at CTIA. There was a web chat transcript that was found on the Sprint Community that seems to corroborate. In this web chat an interested consumer asks customer support if a new Android device is going to hit the market soon. The customer support rep does in fact confirm that a new smartphone device is going to be available very soon.

The announcement of this new phone is a welcome sight to any consumers who were waiting for a new Android phone to hit the market. This new HTC Supersonic is supposedly going to be one of the most high powered phones on the market today. The 4.3 inch screen will make surfing the web and browsing through contacts and music a breeze. Also, this new mobile device is going to be part of the Android 2.1 OS which is supposed to be much more powerful than the original Android OS.

I know that I am quite excited to see what this potentially new unlocked cell phone is actually going to be and what this new announcement is all about. If it is in fact going to be an announcement about the new HTC Supersonic than you can expect Sprint CEO Dan Hesse to talk about this in his keynote speech on Wednesday at CTIA.

This phone is duly noted as being the first ever Android phone without Google search - instead it has Yahoo search! This a big factor for a lot of people out there because usually with an Android phone you don't have a choice in the matter. Its Google or nothing. Believe it or not, a lot of people would rather use Yahoo! While the Motorola Backflip is not one of the more high-end phones like the Apple iPhone or the Blackberry, it still holds some pretty awesome attributes that make it one of the most bought phones of 2010. This is their 4th release for the US market and the fifth universal.

First off, this phone has a clam shell design all in its own respect. It's not the usual clam shell design that most other phones have because the keyboard is almost always visible whereas with other designs the QWERTY keyboard is usually hidden away. Also, this phone has the touch panel on the back of the phone rather than the front of the display and utilizes the back with a keyboard as well. For all of you Social Networking freaks, the Motorola Backflip also supports the ever popular Twitter and Facebook accounts as well.

These are two of the top networks in the world, even overrunning that of Myspace. For those of us that are looking for a unique design, but also want something super-lightweight and a nice picture resolution, the Motorola Backflip offers a mere 133 grams and 320x480 pixels which are pretty awesome stats for a cell phone of this stature. This is a nice phone for basic usage, but it is also spectacular for gaming, watching movies, listening to music, and talking to your friends using the unique QWERTY design option of the Motorola Backflip. As with most QWERTY enabled phones, this one does take some getting used to, but in the end it will be as natural as the air you breath!

After a much anticipated wait Palm finally announced that their top two mobile phones will be coming to the AT&T network. The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be making their way to AT&T’s network in the “coming months.” These are two of the best phones that Palm has to offer and is surely to excite all AT&T customers.

The Pre Plus will be similarly equipped to its Verizon counterpart and will come with 16GB of storage, GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1. The Pixi will be very similar as well as it is expected to have 8GB of storage, GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1. Both devices are expected to support AT&T’s new address book service as a synergy sync option and will have free auto-conntect access to the carrier’s WiFi +20,000 hotspots. These devices are also set to come in a variety of colors including a blue back plate in addition to the standard black and other swapable colors.

Both of these devices appear to be pretty affordable for most consumers. The Pre Plus is expected to be available for $149.99 and the Pixi Plus at a deep discount of $49.99 (with a $100 mail in rebate and two year contract.) The official announcement of these two Palm phones being available on the AT&T network is expected to take place this week at the US’s largest wireless convention, CTIA.

Hopefully at the CTIA convention we will get a more concrete time frame for these mobile devices to be rolled out. Right now they are set to be released in the “coming months.” Here is to hoping that those “coming months” are much shorter than we think they will be. It will also be interesting to see what kind of affect moving to the AT&T network will have on Palm. I expect this will be a great business decision and dramatically increase their sales.

Kyocera has finally decided to enter the Android market by announcing their first Android phone the Zio M6000. The Zio will ship with Android version 1.6. The Zio is a tri-band CDMA EVDO Rev. Which is a handset that supports the 800/1700/1900MHz bands. By utilizing these three bands this makes the Zio compatabile with networks operated by Sprint, Verizon and smaller networks such as Cricket. Other features of the new Android phone by Kyocera include WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. The Zio comes with a 3.5 inch WVGA screen with 800 x 480 pixels. The Zio also features a 3.2 megapixel camera with dedicated camera key and video capture at 30 frames per second. Additional features include a digital compass, accelerometer and support for microSD cards up to 32GB.

While it is still unknown when any US carriers will offer the Zio it is safe to say that Kyocera is looking to make quite the splash in the Android market. For their first Android phone the Zio is set to be one of the better Android phones on the market. With all of the features that come standard with this particular model the Zio is expected to be a hit in both the US and foreign markets. I am especially excited to check out the digital compass and video capture camera. There are two pretty cool features that most mobile devices do not currently have.

For their first Android phone it appears as if Kyocera has hit a homerun with the Zio. I will be expecting big things out of them in the future when they learn what more of their consumers are looking for and can incorporate those wishes into newer and more powerful Android phones and for unlocked cell phones.

Everyone with an ounce of app development experience has come up with something for either the iPhone or the Android, and even the FCC is getting in on the fun. The purpose of the app, according to their website, is to “provide Americans with additional information about their mobile data connection and create awareness about the mobile broadband connection quality. While some people might understandably be concerned with an app designed by the Feds installed on their phone, all the app really does is monitor data upload and download speeds. The FCC is set to release a new national broadband plan on 3/16, which will stress the need for improved cell phone data networks.

The data collected through this app will analyze geographical coverage and quality throughout the United States, essentially providing them an auditing tool for cell phone carrier claims and commercial coverage maps. It will also, quite simply, allow the user to see what kind of data speed they are getting from their cell phone carrier in specific locations. You can also find out the speed of your broadband connection by either turning on your cell phone WiFi, or checking out Broadband.gov. This information generally isn’t as valuable for you as the end user, as you can’t move a fixed connection for better coverage as you can with a cell phone.

Tests were recently conducted by the FCC in Seattle and Los Angeles, using a number of phones and carriers, and the results were a little surprising. Verizon’s Droid in Seattle blew away all other results, registering 3G speeds of 1.71 MBPS downloads and .82 MBPS uploads. The iPhone in Los Angeles came in with speeds of 1.35 MBPS downloads and .21 uploads, while Google’s Nexus One on T-Mobile in Seattle came in significantly slower at .29 MBPS downloads and .35 MBPS uploads.

Recently Verizon Wireless and Skype have announced that they will be joining forces and offer Skype’s application to unlocked mobile phone users over the wireless 3G network. With this easy to use offer Verizon 3G customers who have a data plan can use Skype mobile to:

- Make and receive unlimited Skype to Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe.

- Call international numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates

- Send and receive instant messages to other Skype users

- Remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence

With this new feature Verizon Wireless is basically extending their customer’s unlimited calling community to anyone who uses Skype around the globe. With Skype quickly becoming one of the most popular instant messaging and VoIP programs on the internet this partnership is a great move for both Skype and Verizon Wireless to help grow the Skype brand.

Since many people will want to be continuously connected to their Skype conversations and friend list having the ability to carry these conversations on your mobile phone, like the Sony Ericsson Aspen, is a very logical step. Also, since Verizon Wireless will be rolling out this partnership over the 3G network there should be great reliability for anyone who will be using the Skype platform for their competitive international calling rates.

It will be interesting to see if any of the other mobile phone carries follow in Verizon’s footsteps and add Skype’s features to their network in the near future.

On the heels of their recent announcement regarding the upcoming rollout of the highly anticipated 4G network Verizon Wireless’s CTO Anthony Melone has targeted next summer as the time frame for the carrier’s first LTE handset release. While the aforementioned 4G network is expected to be ready by the end of this year all of us tech junkies will have to wait a little longer for the first unlocked cell phone handset.

It should be well worth the wait though as these new mobile devices are expected to have the same downloading and uploading speed as your home computer. In the current test markets in Boston and Seattle engineers were blown away by the results they were seeing which is a great sign for the possibilities to come. Also, videos will be able to be seen in 1080p high definition which should really revolutionize the way people consume video content on their mobile devices.

There is one bit of bad news that is expected to come with the awesome power of the new 4G network. It appears that Verizon and even AT&T are headed down the path of eliminating unlimited data plans and moving to a tiered structure. While it does make sense for these companies to charge people for the amount of data they download or even upload it is still a bummer that we finally get some great internet speeds on our mobile devices like the Blackberry Pearl but will have to pay more to fully enjoy them.

Looking at comScore’s January quarter cell phone manufacturer and platform market share statistics in the United States, we see some interesting trends. Despite a sharp decrease in global sales, Motorola mobile devices surprisingly still maintains a 22.9% market share of American cell phone subscribers. They saw a 1.2% decrease since October 2009, which is strange considering the release of the success of the Droid in recent months. Considering Motorola’s lack of smart phone offerings, it tells you that the smart phone does not quite dominate the cell phone market as much as one might expect. Samsung recently claimed to hold the number one spot in U.S. market share, but as with any claim, you need to take with a grain of salt and dig a little deeper. When referring to total sales, and not current subscribers, this claim could be feasible, as there are still a huge number of legacy RAZR phones floating around and inflating these numbers.

Looking at the other popular smart phone manufacturers and platforms, Blackberry, iPhone, and Android all saw gains this quarter, while Palm and Windows Mobile each saw large downturns. Regarding the decreases, it seems as though most can be attributed to a large number of Palm OS and WinMO phone subscribers coming off their contracts. At this point, at the tail end of two year contracts, those operating systems are antiquated at best. It’s well known that WinMo is well past its expiration date, with most people who used Windows Mobile heading to the Droid, iPhone, or Blackberry.

Blackberry and iPhone still dominate the smartphone landscape, but it seems like Droid is determined to steal some market share, as they’ve already gained 4.3% since it was released in November 2009. It will be interesting to see if the Droid can continue to win over loyal iPhone and Blackberry users in the next quarter.

According to CareerBuilders.com, 57% of mobile workers (meaning people who primarily work on the road), use their unlocked cell phone while in the bathroom. And I’m not going to lie, I do this regularly myself. Polling 5,200 respondents, they found a host of interesting stats. Not only do we engage in dirty behavior, the majority of us also engage in extremely RISKY behavior. 54% of all workers admitted to checking their phones while driving, and in no surprise, in their never ending quest to make a sale, 66% of sales workers admitted to smartphoning behind the wheel. In one of the most disturbing responses, half of all health care workers admitted to using cell phones in their cars. We can only hope that statistic does not include ambulance drivers.

It truly is an addiction. Almost one fifth of all respondents said they check their phone immediately after it vibrates or beeps, and the same percentage says that their employer demands they be reachable via cell phone after work hours. Most professionals relay on their smart phones such as the Motorola Backflip, for a non-stop flow of incoming and outgoing information, and based on the above stats, I’d be surprised if we don’t see an increase in state and federal legislation penalizing those who use their cell phones while driving. Some other interesting stats taken from this study:

62% check during a meal

60% check while on vacation

57% check while in the bathroom

50% check while lying in bed at night

25% check when at the movies

18% check while on a date

17% check while working out at the gym

17% check when attending their kid’s events

And in a move that will probably shock and disgust your Grandmother, 11% admit to checking their smartphones while at church!